What is the current and projected future value of Germany’s legal cannabis industry?

Over the last decade, Germany’s legal cannabis market has emerged as one of the top markets on the planet, particularly for medical cannabis. Sales of medical cannabis products through pharmacies began in 2017, and since that time, the domestic industry has experienced exponential growth.

Additionally, demand for medical cannabis products has increased so much in recent years that the German market has become the top destination for medical cannabis product exports from other countries. The nation’s industry hit warp speed in April 2024 when lawmakers approved the historic CanG law, which, among other things, removed cannabis from Germany’s Narcotics List.

Legal Cannabis Sales

Germany currently serves as the top medical cannabis market on the European continent. Industry insiders at the Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC) estimate that the nation’s total legal medical cannabis sales were nearly €1 billion in 2024, and that total roughly doubled in 2025 to €2 billion.

Another insightful statistic to consider regarding medical cannabis sales in Germany involves the number of German pharmacies now selling medical cannabis products. As of last year, an estimated 2,500 of the roughly 17,000 licensed pharmacies in Germany sell medical cannabis (more than 1 in 7). To see how cannabis pharmacies work in Germany, check out the embedded video below of International Cannabis Business Conference founder Alex Rogers visiting BezirksApotheke Berlin:

The rate of medical cannabis industry growth in Germany has exceeded the expectations of past years. In July 2024, economists associated with The Niche Research projected that the legal German cannabis market would reach $4.6 billion in value by 2034. That projection will clearly prove to be too conservative if current trends persist.

In a recent newsletter from the German Cannabis Business Association (BvCW), the organization referenced an estimate from Benedikt Sons, co-founder and CEO of the Cansativa Group, that the legal German medical cannabis market could be worth as much as 8 billion euros in the long term. A market projection from Grand View Research estimates that the legal German cannabis market “is expected to reach USD 9.66 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 18.9% from 2025 to 2033.”

Domestic Production and Imports

Arguably, the best statistic highlighting the rapid growth of Germany’s medical cannabis industry is the quarterly import total. In the first quarter of 2024, Germany imported 8.143 tonnes of medical cannabis products, which was a quarterly record at the time. The total ballooned to 32.419 tonnes in Q4 2024. To put that Q4 2024 figure into perspective, that was more than Germany imported in the entire 2023 calendar year.

In total, Germany imported roughly 72.85 tonnes of medical cannabis products in 2024, which is an impressive sum. However, that total pales in comparison to what was imported in 2025, with Germany importing over 201 tonnes of medical cannabis during the calendar year:

Medical cannabis imports are not the only source of products for patients in Germany. In addition to importing medical cannabis from other countries, cannabis is also produced and processed domestically.

“In Germany, companies plan to cultivate 13.7 tons of cannabis for medical or scientific purposes this year. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) reported this amount to the International Centre for Cannabis as Medicines (ICCB) at the end of January, based on company forecasts.” krautinvest wrote in its recent local reporting (translated from German to English).

Before the CanG law was implemented in April 2024, and a previous national medical cannabis production quota was in place, licensed German companies were limited to a combined 2.6 tons of annual production. As time goes on, it is a safe bet that domestic production will continue to increase in Europe’s largest medical cannabis market.

Patient and Adult-Use Consumer Base

German patients have the option to self-pay or to be reimbursed by insurance companies. Reimbursements are easier to track because of the paper trail that such transactions create, but self-pay transactions are trickier to pin down.

“There has been a consistent number of between 200k – 300k medical patients.” leading international cannabis economist Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, wrote last year in his newsletter. Whitney credited the rise of telemedicine options in Germany for an increase in self-paying patients. “As a result of this new innovation, there is now an additional 500k – 600k self-paying consumers participating in the legal market.”

Most of Germany’s adult-use cannabis consumer base still relies on the unregulated market. According to data published by Statistisches Bundesamt, Germany’s total population was 84,669,326 at the end of 2023 (the most recent data available). Of that, an estimated 83.1% of the population was of legal cannabis age (18+), or roughly 70.36 million people.

Germany’s Epidemiological Addiction Survey found that roughly 8.8% of Germany’s population reported consuming cannabis at least once within the last year. Applying that percentage to the number of adults in Germany, the total potential legal cannabis consumer base in Germany is nearly 6.2 million people, and that is likely a low-end estimate because presumably some amount of consumers refrained from admitting to the government that they are cannabis consumers out of fear of potential persecution.

Evolving Adult-Use Market

Germany’s adult-use cannabis industry is the big wildcard when it comes to projected total market value. Starting in April 2024, adults in Germany can cultivate, possess, and consume a personal amount of cannabis. A few months later, Germany started to allow adults to apply to launch and operate cultivation associations. As of this month, according to the Federal Association of Cannabis Cultivation Associations (BCAv), there are now over 400 cultivation applications approved in Germany, with hundreds more applications pending.

A major component of Germany’s historic CanG measure is regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials. The research-based pilot trials have yet to launch, despite several jurisdictions applying in Germany, and similar pilot trials already operating in the Netherlands and Switzerland, with no major issues being reported.

How large Germany’s adult-use cannabis market will ultimately prove to be in the future is entirely dependent upon the commerce options that adult consumers will have. Current European Union agreements prohibit nationwide adult-use sales systems within its membership, such as the regulated commerce model that is in place in Canada. Until EU agreements are modernized to permit nationwide adult-use cannabis sales, pilot trials will remain a vital component of Germany’s legalization model.

Despite the growing pains that Germany’s adult-use cannabis market is dealing with, there are still ancillary sectors experiencing a boost from the CanG provisions that have been implemented. Home cultivation is proving to be very popular in Germany, and businesses offering products and services catering to home cultivation are reaping the financial benefits. The same can be said for companies that create cannabis consumption devices and gadgets.

Barely Scraping the Surface

As far as Germany’s legal cannabis industry has come in recent years, it is still readily apparent that there is a lot of room for future growth. That is especially true for the adult-use sector, but also for the medical sector.

Looking ahead, Germany will continue to serve as the continental leader for the legal cannabis industry. The logical next evolution for the nation’s industry is for regulators to approve regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials, and the data collected from the trials can then be used to further the effort to modernize EU agreements to permit national commerce in Germany and beyond.

Something else to consider is looking even further into the future and anticipating Germany’s place as a top cannabis tourism destination. The European country has long served as a top global destination for tourists from all over the world, and many of them would make legal cannabis purchases if afforded the opportunity, either while traveling to Germany for non-cannabis purposes or as part of cannabis-focused tourism.

With Germany’s domestic industry continuing to mature, the future of German cannabis is very bright, making the country the most exciting market on the planet right now. It is against this historic backdrop that the International Cannabis Business Conference, Europe’s largest and longest-running cannabis B2B tradeshow, is coming back to Berlin on April 13th to 15th. A limited number of tickets are still available. Register now before the event sells out.